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The head of the international business at iShares, the BlackRock unit and the largest seller of exchange-traded funds globally, has resigned, Financial News has learnt.

Rory Tobin, who ran the iShares business outside of North America, joined Barclays Global Investors in 2004.

Tobin and Mike Latham, who is currently head of the iShares business in North America, announced the change at a town hall meeting in London Thursday.

According to an internal memo, seen by Financial News, Latham is to lead the business globally, while Joe Linhares, head of US sales, will assume the role of head of Emea iShares.

A BlackRock spokeswoman said: "Mike Latham was named today as global head of BlackRock iShares. This will bring a unified global business and have a single leader overseeing all iShares activities.

"We are very appreciative of [Tobin's] contributions in building the iShares business and we wish him well in his future endeavours."

Tobin, 44, is the latest senior figure from BGI to leave iShares since it was acquired by BlackRock. On April 30 the firm saw the departure of Lee Kranefuss, the former chief executive of iShares. Kranefuss and Tobin are considered to have played key roles in the development of the iShares business.

The credit crisis turned out to be a positive for ETFs as inflows soared. Institutions and high-net worth individuals sought out ETFs due to the combination of high liquidity and absence of counterparty risk.

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BlackRock bought iShares last June as part of its $15.2bn (€12bn) acquisition of BGI from Barclays. The combination created the world’s biggest fund manager, as Blackrock’s assets under management more than doubled to $3.36 trillion. The deal effectively trumped a prior agreement by Barclays to sell iShares for $4.4bn to CVC Capital Partners.

It was the second major acquisition by BlackRock in recent years. It also paid $8.5bn for Merrill Lynch’s investment arm in 2006.

Earlier this year BlackRock chief executive Laurence Fink said the firm’s integration of BGI was “going quite well”, and progressing at a faster pace than its combination with Merrill Lynch Investment Management.

Shares at BlackRock today rose 1% to $153.81 in mid-afternoon trading in New York. They have slumped 34% this year, hurt by weak inflows into their funds. In April the firm’s first-quarter earnings missed analysts’ estimates.

Tobin has spent six years at BGI. He first joined BGI as director of transitions, before he was appointed as chief executive of iShares in Europe in 2007. Tobin previously spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs where he was made managing director before he moved to JP Morgan in 2002. He has agreed to an extended period of gardening leave.

iShares ETFs are worth about $509bn in an industry that runs over $1 trillion of assets. ETFs are pooled investment funds that allow investors to gain exposure to specific assets such as a commodity or a corporate bond fund. They offer flexibility as they are quoted on the stock exchange.